the january love note
What I ate, watched, wore and loved this month.
Hi! Welcome to the January love note! Sharing a little round up of the month featuring the favorite things I ate, watched, wore and loved from the (longest) month (on record).
I’ve seen so many funny things swirling around online about how long January is, and I’m here to pipe in that *I agree*. It’s been like a month long hangover from the holidays. Honestly, January was a little rocky in the Metroka house. It felt like the boys bickered more than normal, everyone was reluctant to go back to school (me included), Maddie and Luke both had terrible coughs for what feels like weeks. This is a love note, but I have to say that I didn’t love any of that.
We did have some fun work done at our house this month. I think so much fun that I’ll make it’s own post. (hint - the kitchen!). The work was supposed to just take a few days, but it stretched into what feels like the whole month. I have a few finishing touches before it feels truly complete.
Ate - I feel like I didn’t do much cooking this month what with our kitchen work, but I did make a few cozy, hearty, winter, January-y meals that made a mark. Our favorite Ramen noodle soup, Ina Garten’s Chicken in a Pot with Orzo (YUM), my husband’s chili, and our favorite beef and barley stew to name just a few. I’ll start sharing recipes on here this month for easy reference. I shared most of those recipes on instagram, and they’re worth bookmarking!
Baked - My list sounded so epic this month, but I didn’t get around to making hardly any of my baked goods. I did make two really good cookies this month. I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Sarah Kieffer’s 100 cookies that disappeared before my very eyes last weekend, and the week before that I made these really great Breakfast Cookies. My kids inhaled them so fast that I had to make a second batch the next day. They’re basically granola bars in cookie form and they may be the only cookie that you’ll feel ok about your kids eating for breakfast. The recipe is shared here.
Drank - If you know me, you know I love a good cocktail (I’m currently at work on an e-book - A Year of Cocktails). My sister and I “meet” on FaceTime for sister cocktails every couple weeks. We choose a drink, get all the ingredients, make and then drink it together and talk through if we liked it or not. This month we made French 75s for New Year’s (our favorite drink so far) and we made Painkillers. We decided the Painkillers are basically vacation in a cup. I also made a really lovely classic Martini. I think I’ll share the recipe within the next week or two. It’s the easiest cocktail to master and if you do it right, it’s always good.
Watched - You’re going to laugh about this, but I think the best thing we watched this month may have been the original Gladiator? We watched it for date night a couple weeks ago to get ready for Gladiator 2 and I had fully forgotten how epic it is. A Gladiator 2 date night is in the works for next weekend!
Read - I read 5 books this month. A lot! Two were five stars and the rest were kind of duds. The two best books - Just for the Summer, by Abby Jimenez (flirty, fun chick lit with heart. I like her books because they’re more real than most chick lit. The characters are real and relatable and all have issues to deal with. Far more depth than most chick lit . And the spice level is reasonable. Like they have spice, but it’s not off-putting. ) and Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney (I really think you have to be in the right mood for this one. It’s very introspective and poetic and beautiful. It’s gotten a lot of hate, but I just loved it.).
Wore - I have become a jeans and a sweater girl this month?? I know. It’s weird. I’m usually a year-round dress wear-er. But I think that something about my body starting to shrink back to its normal size 6 months postpartum has made me reach for jeans more than I used to. I should say “new normal” size. This body’s got some new dents and curves to it after four children and I love it all the more for it. I decided to jump on the barrel leg jean trend this month and I am looooving them?! They feel adjacent to the wide leg jean trend which I also love. I wore the death out of my Greta ballet flats, and I think I wore every sweater in my arsenal this month too. It was cold (for Florida), but I’m about ready to break out my skirts in February. It was 80 degrees today and it seems like our winter chill is on the path to thawing out.
Loved - I need to make this its own post as well, but I broke up with my planner this month. It just wasn’t serving me anymore. I felt like I had weeks go by where I wouldn’t even open up my planner and all those pages just went to waste. It felt like it kept happening, so I wanted to try something new. My internet friend Courtney, (@alifefromscratch), shared her journey recently about breaking up with her planner and I’m trying out something similar. It’s basically just using a notebook and a spiral bound calendar for dates. More to come on that!
I am so looking forward to February and seeing what the next month holds - mainly, my parents visiting and settling back into our “new” kitchen.
The planner idea is interesting! We have a giant wall calendar for big ticket items like sports games and school events. Otherwise not a lot of detail on that. And I do use a notebook, I actually keep it in my car.